Tag Archives: serenity

Big thank you to Oestrus of Stories of O, Serrinne of Apotheosis and Baerd of Arm of Hades who helped contribute to or review this guide.

Here are specific things to look for when analyzing holy priest logs. It’s best to look at specific kills or attempts in order to get meaningful numbers.

Healing Done

Holy priests are mainly raid healers who are capable of great AoE burst healing. They have 2 difference Chakra states that can increase the effectiveness of their group or single target healing. With a huge array of spells at their disposal, holy priests have a heal for every situation.

Player Details

Healing by Spell

Is the priest using the appropriate spells?Holy priests have a big, diverse selection of healing spells. How often each of these spells are used will depend on assignment, raid composition and personal preference.

The main raid healing spells are: Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, Renew and Holy Word: Sanctuary on fights where the raid is grouped up.

The main single-target healing spells are: Binding Heal, Holy Word: Serenity, Flash Heal, Greater Heal and Renew. Which single target spell is used most will depend on the priest and the fight.

Unless assigned to tank heal exclusively (which won’t happen much) a Holy Priest’s top two spells will generally be Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing. Echo of Light will also usually be in the top 5 heals in terms of healing done. Though the big AoE spell will make up the biggest percentage of total healing done, single target spells should also show up on any given fight.

Spells that should not show up in the logs much include:

Power Word: Shield: This spell is weak for a Holy Priest and generally not worth casting, especially if there is a Disc Priest in the group. Power Word: Shield should mostly be used for the Body & Soul speed boost.

Heal: Though Heal is very efficient, it does relatively little healing. It can be used as a filler spell during times of low damage but it shouldn’t make up more than a couple percent of overall healing.

Overheal

Overheal doesn’t mean a lot for a Holy Priest. The nature of spells like Prayer of Healing, Holy Word: Sanctuary and Echo of Light will push the overheal numbers up. Though the single target spells should have low overheal, as long as the priest isn’t running out of mana and their assignments are staying alive, overheal isn’t a big concern.

Notes on specific spells:

Lightwell

When glyphed, Lightwell has 15 charges. How much healing Lightwell does depends on how much the raid uses it, which can’t really be controlled by the priest. It has a 3 minute cooldown and should be up as much as possible. In many situations Lightwell should be dropped before the pull (which won’t show up on the logs for the fight) so it can be dropped again sooner – unless its use is otherwise specified. Check how many times the Priest placed a Lightwell by clicking on Lightwell Renew on the Healing Done page. Look at the Buffs tab and divide the buff count by 15 (and round up!) to see how many times it was dropped over the course of the fight. Also check that the priest is making use of their own Lightwell.

Desperate Prayer

Instant, free and heals the priest for a ton of health. Priests with this talent should be using this on every fight. Multiple uses with low overheal show the priest is aware of their own health levels.

Flash Heal vs. Binding Heal

Since most raid fights involve significant raid damage, Binding Heal should be used more than Flash Heal most of the time. Use of Binding Heal shows the priest is taking care of themselves in addition to the rest of the raid and is a great tool in situations where the priest and their assignment are both taking damage. Binding Heal is also more likely to proc Surge of Light for free, instant Flash Heals.

Divine Hymn

Divine Hymn has an 8 minute cooldown, so can only be used once a fight. Besides the healing it provides it also increases healing done to those it heals by 10%. It should be used on every fight.

Divine Hymn is affected by haste. The base amount of ticks is 12, but with 12.5% haste (which most raid-buffed Holy Priests priests will have) it will heal 15 times. If cast while under the effects of Bloodlust, it could tick up to 18 times. You should see at least 15 direct heals from Divine Hymn. If it’s less, the priest is probably using it at a bad time and had to interrupt the cast before it was finished.

Buffs Cast

This screen will tell you how often a priest is using their cooldowns, along with the uptime on key abilities.

Prayer of Mending – PoM should be cast on cooldown and be up as much as possible. 80-90%+ uptime is a good, attainable target.

Hymn of Hope – Hymn of Hope restores mana to the raid and should be used on every fight. Like Divine Hymn it has 12 base ticks but is affected by haste. You may see 15 ticks.

Fade – Fade is something to look for if the priest has pulled aggro on something. If they’re pulling aggro and getting killed without using Fade, there’s a problem.

Guardian Spirit – GS is a life saver with a 3 minute cooldown (2.5 with the glyph). It should be used often. GS shows up under buffs cast which will show you the number of times it was cast.

You can check to see if it was actually triggered by looking under Healing by Spell. If Guardian Spirit shows up here, it was triggered and saved someone from dying. Even if GS is not triggered, it still provides a 40% healing buff on the target.

Trinkets – If the priest has any on-use trinkets, or racials like Arcane Torrent they should be used as much as possible. Compare the cooldown to the amount of times used.

Other things to look for

Chakra – If the priest stays in the same Chakra state for the whole fight, it will not show up in the Buffs Cast section. However, you can tell while state they are in by their spell use. If you see Holy Word: Sanctuary, then are in Sanctuary state, which increases their AoE healing. If you see Holy Word: Serenity they are in Serenity state, which increases their single target heals. On fights with distinct phases with changing damage patterns of single target vs. raid damage a good holy priest will switch between Chakra states. When this happens Chakra will show up under buffs cast. The combined uptime should be close to 100%.

Samples of fights/assignments where you should see both Chakras used:

Beth’tilac – If a Holy Priest is assigned to heal the tank on top of the web they should use Serenity for tank healing then switch to Sanctuary for the final burn phase.

Shannox – If a Holy Priest is assigned to heal Face Rage they should be in Serenity, then switch to Sanctuary when Rageface is dead.

Shadowfiend – Shadowfiend restores mana to the priest and does some damage too. It should be used on every fight. To make sure it’s used, go to the player details and check the Buffs Gained screen. You should see Mana Leech in the Power Gains table. If Shadowfiend is used while under the effects of Hymn of Hope, mana gains will be greatly increased.